Oakley blasted classic rock in her empty car as she drove through Waimea. It was a gorgeous blue-sky day, and she was on her way to pick her girls up after two days without them.
Trent had the girls on Saturdays and Sundays, and Oakley homeschooled them during the week to maximize their time together.
Hayden and Harper still saw their friends in Waimea every weekend. Their father took them to soccer, capoeira, and piano – which was more than he had ever done when he and Oakley were still together – and she took them to karate on Friday evenings before dropping them off at their dad’s place.
Overall, they were kind of crushing this whole coparenting thing. They were giving their girls the best of both worlds: all the highlights of Waimea life on the weekends, and plenty of family time in Pualena during the week.
Pulling up to her old house still felt odd. It was Trent’s house now. He’d bought her out of it as part of their divorce settlement. Months had passed since she moved out – but before that, it had been her home for over a decade.
So many of her hardest moments had happened between those walls… and many of her best memories, too. Harper’s first steps. The first time they called her Mama. It had all happened right there.
The street she had chosen so carefully, the paint color that she had mixed up just for them… everything was the same. Except for her.
Trent’s new girlfriend – or not so new, considering how there had been a significant overlap between their relationship and Oakley’s marriage – was out front, washing a red convertible that screamed midlife crisis. Trent had it shipped over from the mainland right around the time he filed for divorce.
“Hi Oakley!” Jennifer greeted her with a bubbly smile and a wave.
She was twenty-eight, the same age as Oakley’s niece. The age difference between her and Trent was a full generation.
The whole thing made Oakley feel vaguely ill.
She returned the wave in a halfhearted way and walked up the front path in search of her daughters.
“They’re in the backyard,” Jennifer chirped helpfully. “We got them a slip’n’slide!”
Oakley veered right and circled around to the back of the house. She could hear the girls squealing and giggling, and her mood lifted again.
It was a good thing that they enjoyed their weekends in Waimea, she reminded herself. Anything that contributed to their happiness was a good thing.
…even if that thing had been provided by Jennifer.
Oakley hadn’t expected Trent’s affair to turn into a long-term relationship. Sure, Jennifer had moved to Hawaii to be with him, but who didn’t want to move to Hawaii?
She’d thought that they would have lost interest in each other by now, because what could they possibly have in common? The girl had been in kindergarten when Trent and Oakley were traveling the world on their post-college gap year.
But there she was, week after week.
“Mom!” Harper shouted as soon as she rounded the corner. “Watch this!”
Her nine year old ran at the wet strip of plastic that ran across the backyard and dove for it, sliding into a puddle of water at the end.
“Awesome, Harper! One more time, and then we’ve gotta go!”
“Aw man! Ten more minutes?”
“Sorry, kiddo. We need to get on the road.”
“What if we don’t want to go?” Hayden asked from the back steps. She stood in the shade, studying her mom with crossed arms and a pinched expression.
Oakley pressed her teeth together.
Was it too much to ask that Trent had them ready to go at pickup time? She did all of the driving. Even metaphorically, he refused to meet her halfway.
“We need to,” she said. “It’s a long drive south.”
“I want to stay with dad.”
Oakley took a deep breath.
